The present invention relates in general to mail boxes installed at locations removed from the place of residence or business, and more particularly to a mail box having a signal to indicate the presence of mail in the mail receptacle thereof.
Heretofore, mail boxes have employed flags or other signaling devices to indicate the presence of mail in the mail box. In such boxes, the opening of the door by the mail carrier to place mail in the mail box activated linkage to raise a flag arm in the upright position. The flag arm remained in the upright position until an operator reset the mail arm to its initial position. However, some of such mail boxes employed stops to hold the flag arm in the upright position as disclosed in the patent to Cooper U.S. Pat. No. 3,168,239 and the patent to Palmer U.S. Pat. No. 1,149,781. In other mail boxes of this general type, cam arrangements served to raise the flag arm to the upright position and to maintain the flag arm in the upright position. Arrangements of this nature are disclosed in the patent to Oliver U.S. Pat. No. 918,899 and the patent to Barkdoll U.S. Pat. No. 2,838,230. Other patents disclose mail boxes with articulated linkage for the raising of the flag arm to the upright position and holding the flag arm in the upright position as disclosed in the patent to Cox et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,905,378 and the patent to Scott U.S. Pat. No. 1,521,397. In the patent to Stouten U.S. Pat. No. 2,852,185, a mail box is disclosed therein in which the opening of the door to insert mail into the mail box serves to raise a flag post to an upright position, and a weighted end of an arm connected to the flag post maintains the flag post in the upright position until an operator resets the flag post to its initial position.
In certain of the mail boxes above-described, it is difficult to attach the signaling devices to the mail box. Such signaling devices are very complicated and, therefore, are difficult to mount on the mail box. Additionally, when certain of the signaling devices above-described are subject to inclement weather conditions, such as freezing weather, such signaling devices tend to impede the opening and closing of the mail box door. This arises from the mechanical connection between the signaling devices, the mail receptacle and the door.